But At What Price?

Real estate agents spend a lot of time thinking about pricing properties. In any office, “Do you have a second?” is usually followed up with a pricing opinion question. Agents discuss, debate and defend the merits of pricing based on their favorite methods, be it average sold price per square foot, sales price to list price ratio, or days on market compared to… “Hey, did you catch ‘The Americans’ last night?”

All of that said, where one prices a property is a function of two things: market forces and ego.

Let me explain.

A Rose By Any Other Name… Might Be Called Scentūr

Coach, the holding company that ownsCoach leather and several other brands, is changing its name to Tapestry to better represent that they are a multi-faceted fashion house “… not limited to any category, channel or geography,” which was, of course, my exact thought when I heard the new name.

Actually, I thought of the 1971 Carole King album. Apparently, I’m not the only one. When asked for “the first association you have of a company named Tapestry,” the morning crowd at my local Coffee Bean was evenly split between the Carole King album and, as one person put it, “moldy moth-ridden faded banners hanging in dank castles.” To be fair, one person did say, “A classic luxury fashion house incorporating a swath of different brands,” but to be even fairer he copped to reading an article about the change earlier that morning… and then said, “Carole King.”

Rolling Along In My Own Lane

What’s all this stuff I keep reading about bowling alleys?

I’m talking about all the bowling alleys I see included as amenities in a bunch of high-end listings of late. For example, Petra Stunt’s $195 million dollar estate has a bowling alley. (It also has a beauty salon, a gym, a wine tasting room, and massage and tanning rooms. My question is: are all of these rooms  within walking distance to each other, or does one  drive to them in the Formula One cars I like to imagine the racing heiress keeps on hand?)

Many other high-end listings, as well as historic buildings, list bowling alleys as amenities. This begs the question: Who the heck is doing all of this bowling?